A display system for a vehicle includes a display unit mounted to the vehicle and is selectively operable in a first mode as a holographic display and in a second mode as a mirror. Holographic images may include rear view images obtained from a camera or computer generated graphics. Holographic images are displayed at a virtual image plane behind the display to reduce the operator's eyes accommodation.

There is disclosed herein a waveguide comprising an optical slab and an optical wedge. The optical slab has a first refractive index, n.sub.1>1. The optical slab comprises: a pair of opposing surfaces and an input port. The pair of opposing surfaces are arranged in a parallel configuration. The input port is arranged to receive light into the optical slab at an angle such that the light is guided between the first and second opposing surfaces by a series of internal reflections. The optical wedge has a second refractive index, n.sub.2, wherein 1<n.sub.2<n.sub.1. The optical wedge comprises a pair of opposing surfaces arranged in a wedge configuration. A first surface of the optical wedge abuts the second surface of the optical slab to form an interface that allows partial transmission of light guided by the optical slab into the optical wedge at a plurality of points along the interface such that the light is divided a plurality of times. The angle of the wedge allows light received at the interface to escape through the second surface of the optical wedge such that the exit pupil of the waveguide is expanded by the plurality of divisions of the light.

The invention relates to a light modulation device having pixels. Essentially, the one half of the pixels are reflective and the other half of the pixels are transmissive. The reflective pixels are arranged in alternation with the transmissive pixels in the same substrate plane. The light modulation device also has a backplane, which has transistors and data lines for conducting signals to the pixels. Each pixel is assigned at least one transistor and at least two data lines. The transistors and the data lines of each adjacent pair of a reflective pixel and a transmissive pixel are arranged under the reflective pixel.

The invention relates to a method of creation of three-dimensional alignment patterns that includes providing a layer of optically recordable and polarization sensitive material having a thickness that is greater than, or equal to, a predefined thickness, and concurrently illuminating the optically recordable medium with two coherent beam of same or different polarization with predetermined angle between the beams such that the said beams impinge from the same side or from the opposite sides upon the layer of the recordable material. The invention further relates to polarization volume holograms based on the said alignment patterns and polarization holographic element including a single layer or a stack of several layers of optically recordable materials containing single or multiple polarization volume holograms.

Holographic volume gratings in waveguide cells can be recorded using many different methods and systems in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. One embodiment includes a holographic recording system including at least one laser source configured to emit recording beams and a movable platform configured to move between a first position and a second position, wherein when the movable platform is in the first position, the at least one laser source is configured to emit a first set of one or more recording beams toward a first set of one or more stations and when the movable platform is in the second position, the at least one laser source is configured to emit a second set of one or more recording beams toward a second set of one or more stations.

According to an embodiment, a holographic microscope comprises a light source emitting light to an object, a beam splitter reflecting the light emitted from the light source to the object and transmitting object light reflected from the object, a holographic image sensor sensing information, including a holographic image, by receiving the object light and allowing the object light to coherently interfere with reference light, and an image processor obtaining three-dimensional (3D) information about the object based on the information sensed by the holographic image sensor. The holographic image sensor includes a lens focusing the object light to the holographic image sensor, a filter transmitting a predetermined wavelength band of light of the focused object light, a light receiving unit receiving interference light to sense a holographic image, and a reference light source directly emitting the reference light having the predetermined wavelength band to the light receiving unit.

A holographic display is comprised of space-multiplexed elemental modulators, each of which consists of a surface acoustic wave transducer atop an anisotropic waveguide. Each “line” of the overall display consists of a single anisotropic waveguide across the display's length with multiple surface acoustic wave transducers spaced along the waveguide length, although for larger displays, the waveguide may be divided into segments, each provided with separate illumination. Light that is undiffracted by a specific transducer is available for diffraction by subsequent transducers. Per transducer, guided-mode light is mode-converted to leaky-mode light, which propagates into the substrate away from the viewer before encountering a volume reflection grating and being reflected and steered towards the viewer. The display is transparent and all reflection volume gratings operate in the Bragg regime, thereby creating no dispersion of ambient light.

There is herein defined optics (e.g. an array of optics) forming an optical beam to either produce a collimated or diverging/converging beam emerging from a virtual source point to illuminate a hologram. There is also described an optical beam illuminating a reflection hologram from the front and a further configuration where an optical beam combined with a holographic optical element (HOE) minor enables rear illumination of a reflection hologram.

A head up display (HUD) system includes: one or more light sources and one or more phase modulators configured to generate and output a hologram; and a replicator configured to receive the hologram, to generate N replications of the hologram from the hologram, and to output the N replications of the hologram, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

A three-dimensional hologram image producing lamp for a vehicle comprises a light source, a hologram plate displaying a three-dimensional hologram image, a curved slope mirror having a reflecting surface shaped as a parabolic curved surface, facing the light source, and reflecting light, radiated from the light source, toward the hologram plate, and a housing disposed on a lamp receptacle of a vehicle body and having the hologram plate, the light source, and the curved slope mirror mounted thereon.